Today we have my favourite husband & wife blogging team offering us their thoughts on a movie for the ‘Recommended By‘ blogathon. Marilyn & Garry Armstrong have been visiting my site since pretty much its inception, and since they don’t like the horror genre, I always appreciate them visiting. Marilyn runs her blog Serendipity and Garry helps her out when he fancies it, and since he has worked with more famous people than the rest of us could ever dream of meeting, when they offer to join in my projects I am always delighted to have them. Without further ado, offering their thoughts on one of the most popular movies of recent times (and great to see them go against the general consensus!) are Marilyn & Garry from Serendipity.
Garry and Marilyn at President Clinton’s party on Martha’s Vineyard. The photo was taken by the Secret Service and was sent to them from The White House!
A high percentage of current pop culture movies and television annoy or bore us.
The last one to leave us saying “huh” was Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). The movie begins with an explosion.
It barely pauses at any point during the next 136 minutes for dialog, character development, plot, or anything else. It also ends with a really big explosion.
At one point in the viewing, Garry left. He came back 20 minutes later. He said later he didn’t feel he’d missed anything. He didn’t because nothing happened except that more things blew up.
It got great reviews. Maybe it’s us.
We are fans of the franchise. We liked The Avengers, Ironman 1-2-3, Spiderman 1-2-3 and the first Captain America. All the incarnations of Wolverine, although Hugh Jackman is getting a bit long in the tooth. With the exception of Thor, which was too dumb and poorly acted even for a late night stupid fix, we’ve enjoyed watching the superheroes of our childhood come to life and save the world. We don’t require great art, just a modestly coherent story. Handsome guys and beautiful women in spandex. Special effects. A plot to tie it together.
The plot doesn’t have to be anything special, but nothing — no plot at all –is too little. Personally, I’m a dialog junkie. I think the era of silent movies ended and these days, actors should have something to say. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, there is grunting, shouting and other animal noises but no dialog. In short, they had no script or at least none we could discern.
Explosions are not enough to carry a movie for more than two hours. If the production company is going to shell out all that money for big name stars, not to mention special effects, how about throwing a few bucks at a scriptwriter? Writers work cheap. Give it a shot, Hollywood.
Head In A Vice 
Tyson Carter
/ September 13, 2014As you know I haven’t seen this, but I know everyone seemed to love it, so it’s nice to see people with differing opinions. After all, it would be a boring place if we all liked the same things!!
Thank you both for joining in 🙂
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Garry Armstrong
/ September 15, 2014Thanks for having us, Tyson. You’ve enriched our world.
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Tyson Carter
/ September 16, 2014Pleasure is all mine Garry, thanks again! 🙂
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CMrok93
/ September 13, 2014It gets a little too caught up and convoluted in its own story, but for the most part, it’s a fun time. Like all the Marvel movies are. Good review.
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Marilyn Armstrong
/ September 14, 2014Reblogged this on SERENDIPITY and commented:
Written by me, with input from Garry, published on HEAD IN A VICE. A movie review for you.
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Marilyn Armstrong
/ September 14, 2014I reblogged it on Serendipity 🙂
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Tyson Carter
/ September 14, 2014Thank you! 🙂
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Garry Armstrong
/ September 29, 2014You came back to a blog site like this? A man like you? Why?
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Abbi
/ September 14, 2014I liked this a lot more than you did but there were a lot of explosions!
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Garry Armstrong
/ September 14, 2014Lots and lots and lots of explosions. Redford should go back to whispering to horses.
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Three Rows Back
/ September 14, 2014I enjoyed this more than you guys but can see your points.
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Brian @ Hard Ticket to Home Video
/ September 15, 2014This was just ok. Didn’t love it didn’t hate it. I liked the first one much better.
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Kristin
/ September 15, 2014Wow, definitely haven’t read a review quite this scathing for this movie yet. I enjoyed it more than the first Captain America, but I can definitely see where you’re coming from in that the movie lacked an overall plot. And if it did have a plot, it wasn’t very well-written. I actually enjoyed the film very much, including all the explosions, and I thought the characters were more fleshed out than the previous film. I thought this movie contained more character development, and I thought the villain was more interesting too. But I definitely welcome reading from another perspective. Thanks!
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table9mutant
/ September 15, 2014Nice review! Although I certainly enjoyed this one a lot more than you did. ; ) I can see it not being for everyone, though. I just thought it was actually one of the better comic book movies of recent years. : )
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Ben
/ October 13, 2014I actually disagree with the lack of plot. I thought this was one of the first Marvel movies to have a solid plot and to do something with the franchise rather than shaking things up but ultimately returning to the original status quo. It was the first movie to do something different with the recognisable character and might evolve the franchise further.
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